I found this story rather fun and unique. Our heroine, Elizabeth, writes novels for the upper classes of society by day. In secret, she likes to write the "penny dreadful" novels so loved by the lower classes. Our hero, Fletcher Walker, comes from from the lower dregs of London and also writes penny dreadful novels. He belongs to the Dread Penny Society, a wonderful group of people pledging to better the lives of who they can, protect what they can of the lower class, and fight for the rights of education in the poor ragged schools.

A competing penny dreadful author, Mr. King, is cutting into the profits of Fletchers work, thus affecting the profits and abilities of the Dread Penny Society. The two authors work together, Fletcher wanting the identity of Mr. King, and Elizabeth wanting some adventure in her life.

The story is split up into sections of each authors penny dreadful novels as well as the main story. I really liked this and was totally drawn into the gothic feel of the novels. I enjoyed Sarah Eden's writing, the flow.

This story does lose stars for me though because I felt like the hero and heroine were barely together in the page time. It really downed the romance for me, which was extremely sparse anyway. I love historical romance for the feels, the tension, the longing and being transported to another era. Unfortunately for me this book missed most of the those things.

I was able to receive an ARC copy complimentary from netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.